“Just remember that if he that crap written on his right arm then it’s not me, otherwise I was wrong and we both know that I’m
never wrong.”

“What about that one . . .“

“I’m never wrong.”

“Okay.”

Kyle starts urinating on the mirror, instantly trading places with his double. Margaret notices that the writing is on his right
arm, as Kyle successfully predicted would happen. She thrusts the knife into Kyle’s double’s body over and over until she’s sure that he’s dead. Kyle’s delighted and the wicked expression on his
face aptly shows it, causing Margaret’s mirror double to be somewhat frightened of her new companion. He notices the horror on her face and tells her not to worry. He pisses on the mirror again,
transporting him back to his natural habitat. He looks at the real Margaret, then he looks at the one trapped behind the mirror and winks. “Thank you, Margaret.”

“I’m probably going to burn in hell.”

“Well, at least it will be warm.”

Margaret makes the mistake of putting the knife down. Kyle grabs the knife grinning baring that wicked glint in his eye.

“What are you going to do with that knife?”

“Nothing, why?”

“You just seem like you have some esoteric scheme wondering afoot in that head of yours.”

“Do you really think that I’m that transparent?”

“In this instance, yes.”

“In this instance, you might be right. And you know what that means, don’t you?”

“Yes, and I think you’re scaring me.”

“Your being scared is the least of your problems, but I can quickly make those problems go away.”

“But I’d rather be alive and be scared than be dead.”

“I did not really want to remind you, but you did just kill a version of me, and as they say an eye for an eye, so to speak.”

“Why could you not have just killed the other me when you were on the other side of that mirror?”

“Because she’s the one that I want.”

“That’s insane.”

“Most definitely, but again this is my reality.”

“You know you’re an incorrigibly conceited asshole.”

“So I’ve been told.”

Margaret discreetly looks around for something to use to bash in Kyle’s head. But she finds nothing that she can use, as he never
invested in adorning his bathroom, because he thought it would be pointless. He cuts her. More of a nick than anything else, but he manages to make it hurt. He wants to milk this moment for as long
as he can. She screams as tears gush out and flow down her face. He cuts her again. He looks at her face knowing if the features were on the opposite side of her face, then he would not be doing
this to her. But oddly enough this makes him take more pleasure in killing her. The version of her not trapped behind the looking glass. He takes his time in cutting her, as if there are no such
things as happy accidents. He cuts the calcaneal tendons so she can’t walk away. She continues to scream until she loses her voice. She attempts to crawl away, but he pounces on her and flips her
onto her back. He laughs because she looks like a clown. He’s too preoccupied with laughing at her hideous clown face that he does not notice that his spit is slowly making its way towards the
event horizon that is the corner of his mouth. Margaret notices the buildup of saliva. Realizing that the spit’s final destination is her face, she finds her voice again and screams right into
Kyle’s right ear. Kyle laughs even more because he’s completely deaf in that ear already.

“Scream a little louder, honey.”

“You can’t tell me what to do.”

“Not even when your life depends on it.”

“I already know that you’re going to kill me.”

“You do, do you?”

“Yes, because you want to be with her,” she says as glances towards the mirror.

“Do you want to know why?”

“Not particularly.”

“Too bad, you’re going to have to hear it anyway. I want her because she understands me.”

“That’s impossible. Nobody can possibly understand you.”

“Well, somehow she found a way to do so.”

“Obviously, she’s as insane as you.”

“To be fair, though, she’s a reflection of you.”

“I know I’m not that crazy.”

“You know that crazy people don’t know that they’re crazy.”

“Are you trying to say what I think you’re trying to say?”

“There is a reason that we found each other.”

“But this is not that reason.”

“True, but your double knows the real reason.”

“Can’t you just ask her?”

“But killing you would simplify things.”

“Well, if you killed me then you would have to deal with a dead body.”

“That can be easily solved.”

“How?”

“Like I’m going to tell you.”

That droplet of spit finally falls onto Margaret’s face. She goes back to screaming.

“You’re screaming because some spit landed on your eye. That does not seem to be the right reaction to something so
petty.” He strokes her hair as he says petty. “No, your reaction calls to mind something akin to Chinese water torture.”

“You’re an animal.”

“We’re all animals, some tend to revert back to our primal roots and others believe that we’re too evolved to act on our basic
instincts. But guess what. The latter would be wrong. We act on our animalistic instincts every day. Why do you think the world is so fucked up? We just found new ways to deal with our animalism.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Maybe. But maybe I’m such a genius that I appear to be mad.”

“No, that can’t possibly be it.”

“Do you really have the ability to disagree with the guy that’s about to kill you?”

“Suddenly agreeing with you is not going to save my life.”

“But being defiant is definitely not going to help you get out of this alive, assuming that that’s an option, which it’s not. Just
so you know.”

“Fine, you want me to agree with you, then I will.”

“You don’t get it, do you? I don’t want you to agree with me just because I want you to. I want you to want to, as if your life
depends on it, which it still does not.”

He cuts her again, not really knowing precise where, as he stares right into her eyes with that crazed look in his. But this time
she does not scream out in pain. She’s beyond the point of feeling pain anymore knowing that she’ll soon be dead, making Kyle absolutely irritated. He reaches that point, which up until now has
only been accomplished when he paints, where all of his senses his focused on his canvas, which now is made of human skin. With the knife as his brush, he makes the necessary brushstrokes needed to
call this painting finished, while leaving Margaret trapped in this world. He even signed his name on the back so as not to take away from the masterpiece on the other side.

“You are now as beautiful as when I first saw you,” he says to his masterpiece, not to Margaret. A masterpiece that won’t ever
hang in a museum, which to him makes it sweeter knowing that he’ll be the only one to see this as a work of art.

“I look the same as the first time you saw me.”

“I was not talking to you. I was talking to the masterpiece that had been stuck in my head. I call this one Death is
Freedom.”

“You are one sick puppy.”

“Perhaps.”

“And what do you plan on doing whenever you get finished with whatever this is?”

Kyle glances at the mirror, “She’ll let me know.”

“So this is all her idea?”

“Well, most of it, yeah, but she said that I could kill you any way I want to.”

“If she’s really anything like me, then she would have wanted you to have been done with this ages ago.”

“I think she’ll be happy with me when the job’s completed. And if she wanted me to finish this within a certain period of time, I
think she would have mentioned that.”

The other Margaret is actually regretting not giving Kyle a timeframe for killing the slightly less attractive Margaret. No matter
how much time he uses up in the process of killing Margaret, they should have enough time to make sure that everything else goes according to plan. And if not, then the Keilberger Club will ensure
that everything stays according to the plan that will eventually make them the ruling class. But first the killing of Margaret must be completed before anything else can happen. Not that anything
could possibly happen before Kyle kills her.

Kyle internally debates how to proceed with the killing. He has to kill her in such a way that his masterpiece remains unharmed.
He could strangle her. Or he could bash her head in on the floor. The possibilities are almost endless. However, before he gets around to finally doing something, Margaret dies of blood loss.
Perhaps it’s for the best as he really did not want to do anything else. He grabs the bodies and travels through the looking glass once again. The other Margaret helps him stash the bodies so they
can never be found. Kyle goes back through to clean up on the other side as things did get a little messy.

“Hurry up!” Margaret says at the looking glass, even though she knows that Kyle can’t hear her and she’s too dignified to urinate
on a piece of reflective glass just to let him that he should already be finished.

Kyle keeps checking to make sure that there are no traces of blood and just to be on the safe side he sprays the whole bathroom
with ammonia so the blood can’t be tested. But he starts thinking how unnecessary the cleaning is because if the authorities think he’s dead then no one will be looking for him. However, if they
think he’s dead and just randomly pops up somewhere, then that would raise some suspicions as well. The overpowering fumes of ammonia are definitely making themselves known, as he obviously not
thinking clearly. But he’s always been indecisive so it’s not that weird for him to be doing so in this situation.

After an hour or so, he’s satisfied with the work and once again travels through the mirror by pissing on it.

“About goddamn time.”

“What! I needed to be thorough. I can’t risk being a suspect, if I’m supposed to be doing something so immensely important to the
fate of the human race.”

“Fine. Just go ahead and rationalize your odd behavior like a crazy person.”

“I will.”

“So now that’s done, we should get back to the main task.”

“Which would be?”

“Making you pope.”

“That seems like a lot of work that I don’t want to do.”

“Don’t worry. You’re not going to pope for long.”

“How not long are we talking?”

“Less than a day.”

“It’s not going to end up with me being dead, is it?”

“Well, technically we’re all going to end up dead.”

“I meant that I’m not going to get assassinated as pope.”

“No, you should not worry about that. You’re going to be the pope that dissolves the Church.”

“And I’m not going to get assassinated for doing that?”

“No.”

“Well, I’m in . . . I guess.”

“Good, but that all seems like more work than I’ve done ever.”

“It should not be too difficult.”

“Alright.”

“Everything that you foretold shall come to pass.”

“And what did I foretell?”

“The dissolving of the Church.”

“How do you know that that will actually happen?”

“Because it’s dated a year from now.”

“Then, how do you know about it?”

“Somehow somebody, nobody’s quite sure who, sent it back to the founding of the Church and the manuscript has been used to
determine who succeeds whom.”

“And I’m next?”

“Yes.”

“So what do we have to do now?”

“We have to kill the pope’s twin, who may or may not be your father.”

“Either way, that does not sound too difficult.”

“You really have no problem killing your father?”

“No and I’m surprised no one’s killed him yet. But how would that help me to become the next pope?”

“We’re going to kidnap the pope and frame him for the sins of his brother.”

“Ok. And to think that all of this started when I fell in love with a girl, who would end up missing.”

“I’m sure you’ll see her again.”

“I doubt that, but I should be more optimistic since you seem to know of future events.”

“Not to spoil anything, but you’re definitely going to see her again. Now telling you whether she’s alive or dead would be
spoiling it for you.”